Electronic device manufacturers strive to produce a rich interface for users. Conventional devices use visual and auditory cues to provide feedback to a user. In some interface devices, kinesthetic feedback (e.g., active and resistive force feedback) and/or tactile feedback (e.g., vibration, texture, and heat) is also provided to the user, more generally and collectively known as “haptic feedback” or “haptic effects.” Haptic feedback can provide additional cues that enhance and simplify user interfaces. Specifically, vibration effects, or vibrotactile haptic effects, may be useful in providing cues to users of electronic devices to alert the user to specific events, or provide realistic feedback to create greater sensory immersion within a simulated or virtual environment.
An increasing number of devices, such as smartphones and tablets, include hardware, such as actuators, for generating haptic effects. Haptic effects, in particular, can enhance the audio/video experience on these example devices. For example, haptic effect accompaniment to an audio/video track can allow a viewer to “feel” an engine roaring in a car, explosions, collisions, and the shimmering feeling of sunlight. Other devices in which a user interacts with a user input element to cause an action also may benefit from haptic feedback or haptic effects. For example, such devices may include medical devices, automotive controls, remote controls, trackpads, and other similar devices.